YouTube’s efforts to combat ad blockers are negatively impacting the companies producing these tools. Multiple ad-blocking companies report that numerous users are uninstalling their products after YouTube introduced warnings for individuals attempting to watch videos on its website with ad blockers enabled.
One such company, AdGuard, revealed that since October 9, over 11,000 people have uninstalled its Chrome extension daily, compared to the previous rate of 6,000 uninstallations per day. On October 18, AdGuard experienced 52,000 uninstalls, as shared by the company’s CTO, Andrey Meshkov. However, installations of AdGuard’s paid version, unaffected by YouTube’s crackdown, increased.
Another ad-blocking company, Ghostery, noted that its usage remained steady in October, despite experiencing three to five times the daily number of installations and uninstalls. Interestingly, more than 90 percent of users who responded to a survey about why they uninstalled Ghostery mentioned that they did so because the tool no longer functioned with YouTube.
Since YouTube’s measures appear to primarily affect users accessing its website via the Chrome browser on laptops and desktops, some users have sought to use alternative browsers as a workaround. Ghostery reported a 30 percent increase in installations of Microsoft’s Edge browser in October compared to September.
YouTube’s advertising has become a significant contributor to Google’s overall revenue, with the company generating over $22 billion in ad sales on the platform from the beginning of the year through September. Simultaneously, the streaming platform is endeavoring to encourage more users to subscribe to YouTube Premium, a subscription that eliminates ads, enables video downloads, offers higher-quality streaming, and provides access to YouTube Music. Earlier this year, the company raised the price of YouTube Premium by $2 to $14 per month.
